The eighteen essays collected in this book had their origin in a conference of the same title, held at the Wingspread Conference Center in October of 1993. Some of the most distinguished scholars in the field were invited to reflect on their specialities in American religious history in ways that summarized where the field is and where it ought to move in the decades to come. Organized according to four general ways of looking at religious history--places and regions, universal themes, transformative events, and marginal groups and ethno-cultural "outsiders"--the essays address a wide range of topics, including Puritanism, religion and the Civil War, Protestantism and economic behavior, gender and sexuality in American Protestantism, and the contemporary de-Christianization of American culture. Featuring contributions from David D. Hall, Donald G. Matthews, Allen C. Guelzo, Gordon S. Wood, Daniel Walker Howe, Robert Wuthnow, Jon Butler, David A. Hollinger, and others, this thought-provoking and up-to-date collection will interest anyone involved in the study of American religion and history.

New Directions in American Religious History

Hart, D.G.

Stout, Harry S.

Religion & Spirituality

Oxford University Press

The eighteen essays collected in this book originate from a conference of the same title, held at the Wingspread Conference Center in October of 1993. Leading scholars were invited to reflect on their specialties in American religious history in ways that summarized both where the field is and where it ought to move in the decades to come. The essays are organized according to four general themes: places and regions, universal themes, transformative events, and marginal groups and ethnocultural "outsiders." They address a wide range of specific topics including Puritanism, Protestantism and economic behavior, gender and sexuality in American Protestantism, and the twentieth-century de-Christianization of American public culture. Among the contributors are such distinguished scholars as David D. Hall, Donald G. Matthews, Allen C. Guelzo, Gordon S. Wood, Daniel Walker Howe, Robert Wuthnow, Jon Butler, David A. Hollinger, Harry S. Stout, and John Higham. Taken together, these essays reveal a rapidly expanding field of study that is breaking out of its traditional confines and spilling into all of American history. The book takes the measure of the changes of the last quarter-century and charts numerous challenges to future work.

History

Americas

Benjamin Franklin grew up in a devout Protestant family with limited prospects for wealth and fame. By hard work, limitless curiosity, native intelligence, and luck (what he called "providence"), Franklin became one of Philadelphia's most prominent leaders, a world recognized scientist, and the United States' leading diplomat during the War for Independence. Along the way, Franklin embodied the Protestant ethics and cultural habits he learned and observed as a youth in Puritan Boston. Benjamin Franklin: Cultural Protestant follows Franklin's remarkable career through the lens of the trends and innovations that the Protestant Reformation started (both directly and indirectly) almost two centuries earlier. His work as a printer, civic reformer, institution builder, scientist, inventer, writer, self-help dispenser, politician, and statesmen was deeply rooted in the culture and outlook that Protestantism nurtured. Through its alternatives to medieval church and society, Protestants 
built societies and instilled habits of character and mind that allowed figures such as Franklin to build the life that he did. Through it all, Franklin could not assent to all of Protestantism's doctrines or observe its worship, but for most of his life he acknowledged his debt to his creator, revelled in the natural world guided by providence, and conducted himself in a way (imperfectly) to merit divine approval. In this biography, D. G. Hart recognizes Franklin as a cultural or non-observant Protestant, someone who thought of himself as a Presbyterian, ordered his life as other Protestants did, sometimes went to worship services, read his Bible, and prayed, but could not go all the way and join a church.

Benjamin Franklin: Cultural Protestant (Spiritual Lives)

Defending the Faith: J. Grescham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America

Baker Pub Group

Is sound doctrine all that makes the church a viable organization in our postmodern world? Or is there something more? In Recovering Mother Kirk, church historian Darryl Hart argues that it is impossible to gain a proper understanding of Reformed doctrine, its worldview, or its piety apart from the experience of the worshiping body of believers. Recovering Mother Kirk discusses the church's commission, contemporary worship, office and ordinances, Presbyterian parochialism, and revival. Although he writes from a Presbyterian and Reformed perspective, Hart believes that every Protestant denomination faces a pressing need to put theology into practice through worship. Anything less, he says, is a form of Christianity that will have little appeal to either spiritual seekers or regular worshipers. Hart attempts to restore the balance between sound doctrine, which is vital to the health of the church, and sound practice. He argues that historically, members of the Reformed tradition have emphasized doctrine to the detriment of practice. In a postmodern world that craves connectedness, the need to restore the vitality of the worshiping faith community has never been more urgent. Recovering Mother Kirk is a thought-provoking manifesto that will be useful to pastors and laypeople within the Presbyterian and Reformed tradition, as well as those who seek to gain a greater appreciation for the relationship between doctrine and the public worship of the church.

Recovering Mother Kirk

Baker Academic

Millions of Americans identify themselves as evangelicals. But what does the word mean? For author D. G. Hart, twentieth-century evangelicalism centers on Billy Graham-those in sympathy with him and those reacting to him. In Deconstructing Evangelicalism, D. G. Hart provocatively argues that evangelicalism is a concept that has obscured more of Christianity than it has revealed and should be abandoned as a separate religious identity. Instead, he suggests that American Christians rediscover their rich theological heritage rather than continue to struggle along with ''a minimalist account of the Christian faith.''

Deconstructing Evangelicalism: Conservative Protestantism in the Age of Billy Graham

Millions of Americans identify themselves as evangelicals. But what does the word mean? D. G. Hart provocatively argues that evangelicalism is a concept that has obscured more of Christianity than it has revealed and should be abandoned as a separate religious identity. Instead, he suggests that American Christians rediscover their rich theological heritage. "Hart's reasoning cannot be easily dismissed. . . . Recommended."--Library Journal

From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin: Evangelicals and the Betrayal of American Conservatism

From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin provides an iconoclastic new history of the entrance of evangelical Christians into national American politics. Examining the key players of the “Religious Right” ― Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Chuck Colson, James Dobson, Pat Robertson, and many others ― D. G. Hart argues that evangelicalism is (and always has been) a bad fit with classic political conservatism. Hart shows how the uneasy alliance of these unlikely political bedfellows has contributed directly to the fragmentation of today’s conservative movement. He contends that the ongoing burden of reconciling the progressive moral idealism of religious conservatives with the sober realism of political conservatives increasingly threatens this precarious partnership. Moreover, Hart suggests that evangelicals are unlikely to remain politically conservative in the long term unless they stop looking to big government to solve societal woes at home and abroad and at last embrace classic small-government conservatism for its own sake.

Eerdmans

Recounts a famously outspoken agnostic's surprising relationship with Christianity H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) was a reporter, literary critic, editor, author—and a famous American agnostic. From his role in the Scopes Trial to his advocacy of science and reason in public life, Mencken is generally regarded as one of the fiercest critics of Christianity in his day. In this biography D. G. Hart presents a provocative, iconoclastic perspective on Mencken's life. Even as Mencken vividly debunked American religious ideals, says Hart, it was Christianity that largely framed his ideas, career, and fame. Mencken's relationship to the Christian faith was at once antagonistic and symbiotic. Using plenty of Mencken's own words, Damning Words superbly portrays an influential figure in twentieth-century America and, at the same time, casts telling new light on his era.

Damning Words: The Life and Religious Times of H. L. Mencken (Library of Religious Biography)

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Recounts a famously outspoken agnostic's surprising relationship with Christianity H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) was a reporter, literary critic, editor, author--and a famous American agnostic. From his role in the Scopes Trial to his advocacy of science and reason in public life, Mencken is generally regarded as one of the fiercest critics of Christianity in his day. In this biography D. G. Hart presents a provocative, iconoclastic perspective on Mencken's life. Even as Mencken vividly debunked American religious ideals, says Hart, it was Christianity that largely framed his ideas, career, and fame. Mencken's relationship to the Christian faith was at once antagonistic and symbiotic. Using plenty of Mencken's own words, Damning Words superbly portrays an influential figure in twentieth-century America and, at the same time, casts telling new light on his era.

Damning Words: the life and religious times of H.L. Mencken (Library of Religious Biography)

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hart, D.G.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hart, D.G.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hart, D.G.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

New Directions in American Religious History

New Directions in American Religious History

Benjamin Franklin: Cultural Protestant (Spiritual Lives)

Defending the Faith: J. Grescham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America

Recovering Mother Kirk

Deconstructing Evangelicalism: Conservative Protestantism in the Age of Billy Graham

Deconstructing Evangelicalism: Conservative Protestantism in the Age of Billy Graham

From Billy Graham to Sarah Palin: Evangelicals and the Betrayal of American Conservatism

Damning Words: The Life and Religious Times of H. L. Mencken (Library of Religious Biography)

Damning Words: the life and religious times of H.L. Mencken (Library of Religious Biography)